Front Seat Replacement

[mondshine]

I will soon be replacing my front seats.
My last road trip was a little bit tough on my old bones, and I want more comfortable seats.

I have acquired a pair of bottom seat frames ('71 Beetle) that fit my original floor rails. I intend to fabricate mounts for my aftermarket seats, and weld them to the bottom seat frames (that way, I can use my original sliders without making any new holes).

In stock form, Thing seats are angled slightly inward, and I am interested in opinions about whether my new seats should be angled inward (like stock) or whether I should mount them pointing straight ahead.
I am leaning toward mounting the new seats angled like the stock seats, but I would like to hear from those who have already done this.

What do you guys think?

[germansupplyscott]

The driver's seat is angled to point your feet into the deep part of the footwell. Because the 181 pan narrows so extremely in the front part I'd be concerned about pointing the seat straight forward - your feet-to-pedals orientation might not work well. Mocking things up will tell you more about what exactly you need to do.
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SL

[KAmes]

I would hate to ride the distances you did on my seats. I guess if you put them straight on your seat frames they'll come out the right angle on your angled seat tracks. I think that's what I would do. What seats are you going to use?

[mondshine]

[mondshine]

New seats are in!
Now, I am riding in style and comfort.

I modified two '71 beetle seat frames to mount my aftermarket seats while retaining the original adjustment rails on the floor (so no new holes).

Here's a rough sketch of the modified frames:

Basically a couple pieces of angle iron welded to the top rails of the VW frames. The angle iron is also supported by 2 short steel tubes on each side.

When I ordered the seats, I also ordered some matching fabric, so the back seats were also re-upholstered to match the fronts.

YIPPEE!

[germansupplyscott]

[KAmes]

Cool! I might be a bit jealous, would love to see a picture. Curious, what are you using for seatbelts?

[mondshine]

The Detroit weather will be rainy for a day or so. When it clears up, I will post a photo.

My seat belts are originals, anchored to the floor. Most aftermarket seats have a provision for mounting belts to the seat, but I believe the original floor mounted belts are best; considering the original Thing seat mounts are not really up to modern standards.

I kept the original front seats, but the back seat upholstery was lost in the pattern making process. New foam in the back seats makes a nice improvement over the ~50 year old stuff.

[74 Thing]

I am so jealous.

I cannot wait to see the photos. If you have the seat bracket photos that would be great to post as well.

[mondshine]

74-
I don’t have any photos of the modified seat brackets alone, so the rough sketch will have to suffice.
In reality, even though my ’71 Beetle seat frames are supposed to be “identical” (and I know that they both came from the same car), there are slight variations dimensionally between the two frames, so the modification to adapt them to aftermarket seats is sort of a one-off deal.
My new seats have two rows of M8 threaded inserts 16” apart, so there was some “ hand fitting” involved to locate the holes through the angle iron supports to make it work.

It stopped raining here for a few minutes, so here's a quick photo:

These seats are made in Stuttgart, Germany. The only US importer, Scheel-Mann USA, is in Portland, OR.
I found a dealer local (to me), so I avoided shipping charges. The Portland distributor only stocks seats with the most popular options, so that’s what I’ve got; heated seat bottoms and backrests, and a small “cargo net” behind the backrests.
I never would have considered heated seats for a Thing, but now that I have them, I will certainly switch them on for those cool morning top-down drives.

Wiring the seat heaters could not have been simpler. The included wire harnesses are high quality, and the only connection to the car’s electrical system is for power from the ignition circuit (Terminal 15) and chassis ground.
The 1971 Beetle seat frames that I bought came with stamped steel “side covers” for the outboard portion of the lower seat frames. They made for a perfect place to mount the seat heater switches.

So, for now, me and my butt are pretty happy.

Edit:
I didn't care for location of the seat heater switches, so I have moved them to the left hand dash panel.

[74 Thing]

Those front seats look so comfortable.

I still have the stock seats in for the look, but I do agree as I get older the lack of comfort will probably lead to me making a change soon.

I added seat heaters to my seats years ago (bought some universal kits off AMZN or EBAY and they have been a great addition. I just wired them to the battery with a fuse and toggle switch underneath the outboard seat frame. It is a must have for me for top down driving or winter driving.

[KAmes]

That looks great, love the original looking fabric. Top down rides in a jacket on cool fall mornings are the best.

[mondshine]

74-
I enjoyed the stock seats for years, but in my old age, they became less and less comfortable. When I drove out to Things West in Chino, CA, I was a young 65, and stopping every 100 miles (or so) to walk around for a few minutes wasn't that bad.
But my last drive to Kubel Treffen in North Carolina convinced me to install more comfortable seats (and that was only a 1300 mile round trip). A lot of that driving was in pouring rain, so there was nowhere to go but to stay behind the wheel and continue driving.

The headrests on my new seats can be pulled right out of their sockets, and admittedly, the car looks better without them (like regular low back seats).
But I feel kind of stupid removing a safety feature just for appearance, even though "safety feature" is sort of a ridiculous term when discussing Things.

[Hot Rod Harp]

Those seats are very nice. I added Rockauto seat heaters when I rebuilt the seats. You can barely see the heater on the padding.

No airbags, no ABS, no head rests, no shoulder belts...
We die like real men...

At least I added front disc brakes.
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74 Thing 1600DP
76 Westfalia 2.0L FI
69 Beetle 1500SP sold
88 Goldwing GL1500/6 sold


RinTinTin in Waldorf Astoria 1956

[74 Thing]